Unethical business practices have been going on for centuries.
Today, consumers are supposedly 'protected' from these unethical practices, except when they are not, as was in my case.
The 'fine print' not only absolves these rogues from their responsibilities, but also allows them to be as unscrupulous in their business practice(s), as they wish.
The 'fine print' not only absolves these rogues from their responsibilities, but also allows them to be as unscrupulous in their business practice(s), as they wish.
I have come across many such practices in my life, both in Africa and in Canada.
One, that most recently affected me, was my move from Ontario to Nova Scotia with Multi-City Moving.
One, that most recently affected me, was my move from Ontario to Nova Scotia with Multi-City Moving.
I had a lot of my stuff damaged and nobody to reach out for help - Nobody to help me claim the true cost of the damage to my stuff and understand the trauma I went through.
Fortunately, there is the Internet and blogging.
I was not going to sit quietly and let these people get away with taking advantage of me, after having paid them almost $12,000,00 of money I did not have, to move my stuff.
I was not going to sit quietly and let these people get away with taking advantage of me, after having paid them almost $12,000,00 of money I did not have, to move my stuff.
Word of mouth can be a great tool in advertising, both positive or negative.
You be the judge.
I wrote this letter to them about a year ago and it has been bothering me how these people can have no conscience. After almost a year of debating with myself, I have finally decided to put the letter on my blog.
They can take their $350.00 and shove it where the sun don't shine. (you can see how they have affected me!!!!)
Dear Mr Bonder:
I am writing to you because until now you have
only heard from my caregiver, Michael.
This whole move from Toronto to Nova Scotia
with Multi City has been a complete disaster..................... except for
the beginning.
It started off very well. You were very good
with the initial consultation (of course you had to be because you wanted our
business) and the fellows packing our stuff in Toronto were excellent as well.
I do not get the point of all the labeling
and numbering of the boxes as I was not able to count them when they got here
and I was also not able to identify the numbers as the people off loading were
so unprofessional, that they put boxes everywhere, and caused damage to a lot of my stuff.
The warning signs went off when we returned to
the house to discover a damaged box in the garbage. That was wrong. Your
supposedly prestigious company's employees did that! It was only because we had
to go back to clean the house that we discovered that not only did they throw a
damaged box in the garbage but they also forgot things outside the garage. It
is a good thing we saw this and you were then able to send someone to pick them
up.
When we
got to Nova Scotia, we were told that the truck delivering our stuff would
arrive at out address by 8:00 am. Several phone calls to your office later, we
were told he was on his way and the driver finally arrived between 2:00pm and
3:00pm with casual laborers he had picked up from Halifax. He said so himself.
I am not going to tell you again how he
damaged three lawns in the process of trying to maneuver the truck on to the
driveway. You already know that. You just choose to ignore it.
I have Multiple Sclerosis and could not
supervise or direct the flow of boxes from the truck to the house. Despite
that, I went up and down stairs to try and make sure that the boxes were put in
the right rooms and in an orderly fashion so that we could enter the rooms and
that the entrances and hallways were not blocked.
Well, the boxes were not put in the right
rooms or the right floors and at one point, one of the fellows was stacking the
boxes on the front porch because he had piled the boxes in the hallway and
front entrance and could not put any more. It did not matter what the label
said. He just piled them stacking them as high as he could. This is wrong and
you know it.
This
was on the 28th of March and was the first week of Spring so the ground was wet
and the truck had damaged lawns and there was mud everywhere. Do you think they
wore protective foot covering? Do you think they organized themselves so that a few could off load the
truck and bring the boxes to the door and the rest would stay in the house and
move boxes so as not to get floors and carpets dirty? OF COURSE NOT. THAT WOULD
ONLY BE TOO LOGICAL - This was wrong and
you bloody well know it.
They all marched in the mud and brought all
that dirt in the house and on my floors (which, despite being disabled, I had
cleaned that morning) and on my carpets. DISGUSTING!
Then your people got hungry. I bought them
pizza. It was neither my job, nor my responsibility to do so. But I did it out
of the goodness of my heart. SOMETHING YOU AND YOUR COMPANY OBVIOUSLY LACK!
As it got dark, we were asked to use our car
to shine lights on the truck so the movers could see what they are doing. WHO
COMPENSATED ME FOR THE 4 HOURS OF GAS THAT MY CAR RAN ON WHILE YOUR PEOPLE
COULD OFF LOAD? This would not have
happened had they arrived in the morning like they were supposed to!
Then, when they were 3/4 of the way through,
it was time to settle the bill or they would keep the rest of my stuff on the
truck.
There was no way of knowing whether all the
boxes actually came into the house; there was no way of knowing what was
damaged because of mishandling by your unprofessional people; there was no way
of knowing whether anything was missing (because the guys off loading were just
picked off the street and there was no accountability).
The bill was way over your estimate and we had
to scrounge from different sources to pay this.
You had so highly under-estimated the cost in
order to get us to sign the contract.
I know exactly what it was. You gave us a low
quote, got out business and then give us a bill just before all the stuff was off loaded so we had to pay or
lose the stuff!
I am on disability and therefore on a fixed
and a very limited income. You took a large chunk of that and refused to fairly
compensate me for all the damages caused by your company.
I hope you can sleep nights knowing how you
scammed a disabled person and then offered a mere $350.00 as compensation for
all the damages, costs and mental distress.
If what comes around goes around, I am sure
you will soon experience the very hell you put me through!
By the time the movers were getting ready to leave, at around 2:00am,
they had not assembled the beds and were not going to (they said it was not
their job. Your company disassembled them. Who was to assemble them?) One of
the three movers was cranky and tired and refused to leave the truck.
The driver said that he would assemble my bed
out of the goodness of his heart. Well, he did it but he did it wrong and my
bed collapsed on the first night with me on it!
By the time they left, my sofa and love seat
were lying on their side, still wrapped in plastic, there were boxes in the
hallway and on the front porch, the boxes for the attic were in the basement
and vice-versa, my wheelchair was left out in the rain to rust, the house was a
muddy mess, my carpets were muddy, dirty and stained and I wished I had never
set eyes on you!
I sent you pictures of all this. They left
furniture still wrapped up in your blankets. My electric piano (which your
people packed) is damaged with broken knobs and scratches.
When we started opening boxes, we found more
damages.
As we arranged the furniture, we found
scratches.
Again, I sent you pictures of all this.
I have a large 6'X 8' stained glass picture
which your people packed. It was damaged,
with the frame bent and the glass broken. I sent you pictures of this
too and you have the nerve to offer me $350.00 in compensation for everything?
Your fine print states that we would have to
sue you in the city of origin. You know that is practically impossible because
of my disability.
I pray I have the strength to tarnish your
reputation enough to cause you the same pain and suffering you have caused me.
After everything, you offered me a $650.00
with a $300.00 deductible so I ended up with merely $350.00 as compensation
from you.
After all the
damages and mental stress and physical strain that you caused me, you have the
audacity to offer me $350.00?
When Michael, my caregiver questioned your
assistant Talin about it, you phoned him and asked him to stop harrassing her.
She agreed with the errors your company had made and you said she was mistaken
and, buried everything.
I do not know how you can live with yourself.
No decent human being could but then, you have no decency and I hope that
someday you rot in the same hell you
have put me through.
I hope you experience the same pain and
discomfort you have caused me and every time you look at yourself in the
mirror, you remember how you scammed a disabled person off by ripping him off!
Sincerely,
Alnoor Rajan
These are only some of the many many damages:
